Famed Métis leader Louis Riel was born in Saint-Boniface on this date in 1844. He would go on to become one of Indigenous Canada’s greatest-ever leaders. He twice was the head of Métis governments and is considered today one of the founders of modern-day Manitoba. Sadly, he was executed after leading his people during battles against the Canadian government in 1885. He was only 44 years-old at the time of his death but his legacy of fighting for the rights of his people has lived on and on.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.